..:: 361. The One With ACPC ::..

well. ACPC is appointment certificate presentation ceremony. i got my sword and cert saying i'm officially a commissioned officer on 11 dec. 1 day after my comm parade.

btw, the parade will be reviewed by the President so all of you are invited to go down to SAFTI MI but may not get grand stand seats. but still can see the parade. hee...

anyway we had great food during the dining in and lots of alcohol and photo taking... time to shut up.


Me and Commander OCS...


platoon 2


me and comms ball chairperson, meng kit


foxtrot platoon 1. those were the days.


foxtrot wing commander, LTC Ng Hee Teck


with our school sergeant major... always like to say 'you bloody swine'


hardcore clubbers. me and 'taiji master' the motion represent him pushing responsibilities to others. lol. at least that is what people call him.


my commando friend...wei jie


the officer face. 2LT John Chen a bit too arrogant but hu cares?

..:: 360. The One With Liquid Room ::..

yesterday night was shiok. went to liquid room for the first time. comparing the music from chinablack, phuture and liquid room, i think the latter still the best. started dancing the moment i went in till i left. Lots of grinding, the girls there were daring... of course the ratio of guys to girls was like 15 to 1. there were a few irritating couples... they love to hold each other, wiggle downwards and upwards. sometimes when they wiggle downwards, i felt like sitting on their heads... but their shots were good too, too bad cant exchange for a jug.

















christmas deco at orchard road:


oh ya just read abt some military pix posted on the blog, have to be more careful what i post next time. thanks jason for reminding me.

some interesting pix...

my wing SM... idling...



one of my chao-beng instructor... who degrades male dancers as being gay 0_0 plain shallow.



P.S: i think he looks more gay here. sir, it's just a needle...

..:: 359. The One With Course Closing ::..

well... my course (reads: engineer officer cadet course) has officially ended. Received my cert and took a course photo on friday. not much to say but lots of pix to show... can log on to the website stated in my intro on msn for more pix on crescendo. had my last interview with my instructor... wish i never had that interview... cos my friend and i both had the interview at the same time and were both disappointed. We were both fighting for sword of merit but then it was hard to get cos for field engineers 2 out of 30+ people get it. Plus they need to give each specialisation one SOM, like armour, bridging, CBRE, EOD... but each of them is like 1 out of 7-9 will get it. what are the chances? haiz... we were not happy with the ranking they gave. we were both damn pissed. screw the assessment system.

sian, shant talk abt it... make my blood boil. just disappointed with the course after so much effort has been put in. if they send me to infantry pioneer, i would say FU :)

I am confident where i stand, i know who should be and qualify to be my competition.

c",) here are some of the pix i took when i went for a red cross event today. It's my junior birthday!





how the parade square looks like:



All the cadets:



c",) some of the hand picked pix from my album...

de-kit our store:



my buddy and me:



my best friends:



rainy day in SOCE, ETI:



my garang platoon doing PT during free time:



last few days, everyone went nuts. dao pok!



ripping underwear:



Sword of honour not spared:



something the e-mart auntie gave us on our last day:



platoon 2, section 1:



jason-the-craig-david and me:



chong han, fish and me:



Heavy!



Edmund john and me:

..:: 358. The One With Home Sweet Home ::..

yay, so glad to touch down singapore again. this marks the end of my training phase for my professional term. time flies and the whole journey was filled with lots of emotions.

for the overseas exercise, i did not get any appointment, to my disappointment. there was a change in the appointment list cos CO thinks priority should be given to those who have not been assessed and those who were in the bottom few. For the matter of fact, i did not get PC role for even local summary exercise which made me ponder whether am i still a contender for sword (merit). They knew i am fighting for it and even encourage me but the fact i did not get any important appointment made it hard for my peers to evaluate me. Seriously, i am pretty confident i am good enough to even fight for sword of honour, just that i didnt have the chance.

pissed. brought up the matter to my OC and he refused to answer how the assessment scheme is like. Talked to one of the majors but what i got was that i confirm pass the course and did well. But problem is i'm not looking for just 'well', i want to know whether i can get the sword. Just like talking to OC, i told him straight in the face i know i confirm can pass... the rest were stunned. -_- i mean come on la, at this stage if you still dunno whether you can pass, something must be wrong.

took lots of pix for the trip.

http://photobucket.com/albums/c301/saiyok/



platoon 1 cadets with OC



beaver venture, we basically walked for more than 60km in full battle order. Had 4 missions to complete. Limited rations-until one person 1 biscuit for breakfast.



bunk in sai yok camp



platoon 1



with our wing SM, ah choy



floating market



zoo. yay.



wax museum



my packet IC.



me with 2 going-to-ord personnel

..:: 357. The One With Ex Crescendo ::..

Hey guys by the time u read this, i'm in thailand :)

Arrival to Singapore: TG 8194, reach at 0315 14 Nov

lol no need to pay airport tax. my flight is at 415am. yawnz...

..:: 356. The One With Pre-Crescendo Syndrome ::..

mmm... had a chat with my senior instructor... shld haf talk to him earlier can get more insights. i was told i'm getting a 'very impt' appointment... wah exciting but nervous... and my sir wanted to talk to me personally whenever i can spare the time. wow. finally i felt important... everyone around me seems to know what they will be getting. definitely a morale booster hearing from my sir that i cannot let them down. but higher expectation = more stress

i can do it

oh ya forgot to give some survival tips for a more enjoyable time in ZOUK.

10 rules of Zoukasutra

1. Stand near the ceiling fan
2. Never go all the way into the crowd (near neon board), you can hardly get out if you need to go toilet
3. Your feet should be as wide apart as possible without compromising your comfort (if not you wil find yourself resort to vibrating)
4. For guys try stand near girls, in any case you can resort to the lowest form of vibrating but yet find yourself grinding instead of rubbing with some 'simply-cant-dance' guys.
5. For girls, beware of guys who will grind you from the back. lol. turn and face him for best effect, under normal circumstance, he will retreat and give you space. however provided he wont ask you 'how's the air down there' *grins*
6. Work on hip thrusts (for girls: you got nothing to lose. for guys: something new other than those horrible back thrusts or rather slams)
7. The only way to create space for yourself is to stop cursing under your breath and start hip + back combi thrusts. It works ok! Sorry for those dancing around me, i bet they kena blue-black.
8. Move at the correct rhythm and not excessively. Some guys really look like they are having fits.
9. For guys: Drinks may make you high but try to keep your 'orgasmic' looks while dancing under control. A real turn-off even to the people ard u.
10. Club more! your endurance level will increase. :) It's all about having fun with your friends

went to the prata house with my bmt buddy for supper :) as usual spent 14 bucks and gd time :) air force is really different. he's going to KL for his leave -_- while i am going thailand for exercise. will see him on 21 nov when we all go back to ocs :)

now spinning:

craig david's
johnny
unbelivable
hypnotic
all the way

madonna's hung up

sean paul's we're be burning

of course stephanie sun's new album :)

some funny flash direct translation 'mouse love rice'
with some really broken english

http://myweb.hinet.net/home7/dreamweaver/mouse.swf

dun wan to make my entry too lengthy... so lyrics in url

johnny
http://www.songlyrics101.com/lyrics/C/Craig%20David%20Lyrics/Johnny%20Lyrics/

unbelivable
http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/craig_david_lyrics_2919/the_story_goes_lyrics_15317/unbelievable_lyrics_177882.html

..:: 355. The One With Zouk Outing ::..

hee... zouk was damn fun. music was good and it has better ventilation than chinablack. renovation was well done. so definitely can catch me there a few more times. Shots were good too :) We left at about 3am then head to Geylang for some supper :)

waiting for cab at Far East





strangely when we met up with the rest, all were wearing white except for one la



dou jiang you tiao



the last place we went before we left



how i got these pictures? i bought a new camera! lol.

..:: 354. The One With Assumption of ETI ::..

this week was super 'waste-time'. less the appointment ceremony and trying to interact with the coporals joining us for crescendo. i got leave on monday as you guys knew and after the prayers i had a 9-course lunch at crystal jade. damn good food. but booking in with a full stomach sucked. first thing when i went back was to have arms drill (aka marching and drills with rifle that is). kinda cool our wing sergeant major made us flip our rifle up and catch with one hand.

mon night, the instructors announced our exercise platoon and the admin appointments... mmm... should i say i was happy and sad? yes got into platoon 1 which seemed like an all-star platoon cos all the capable people were all in platoon 1. but then i didnt get any admin appointment which i was quite disappointed. people thot i was crazy craving for an appointment when many were praying to 'siam'. Being admin appt holder got advantages... firstly u know all the stores each platoon should have so u can estimate how the obstacles gonna be be like, how many and types. secondly u can get to know the coporals earlier and closer rather than now i only know one section :(

tue-thur basically parade rehearsal for thur evening's assumption parade. School of combat enginners and division engineer training centre, both standing down and a new Enginner Training Institute (ETI) will emerge.

but parade that day kinda screwed up last part cos of the commander... we were told not to execute if its a wrong command but it was do-able so some did some didnt... and the march pass was horrible cos people in front followed the music... people at the back got timing which was off...



that was 39th SOCE anniversary... find that place familiar? we were in pumping positions at sentosa! arghz... but that day was throwing all the instructors into the water and ripping their underwears... OC got thrown so every instructor had to go into the water too... we almost ripped OC's erm... lol

more pix to be uploaded...

..:: 353. The One With Apply For Leave ::..

ooo... had a scary encounter with OC or at least his sms...
actually i mentioned about applying leave to my instructor a few weeks back but i think the instructor forgot and i didnt remind him :( the leave was for my late grandmother's prayers 49 days after her demise.

OC: Why so last minute! prayers are not made known at e last minute. Its a discipline that all military personnel must adhere to ask for leave at e earliest possible opportunity. Why have this not gotten into e cadets head! explanation?


hmm... scary huh. i read that i also got stunned. but the fact i did tell the instructor long time ago. OC meant well i guess... in the end he still gave me the leave. but i will miss the appointment ceremony :(

..:: 352. The One With Chinablack ::..

well its the weekly update :) kinda shiok knowing i only have wed-fri left in the week. wed was laidback cos we had leadership lecture by one of our favourite officer, MAJ Low. Thur we spent on revision on our drills which i found useful but spending the whole day was not very fruitful. Nothing beats having yourself doing the planning, running through the thinking process, rather than having people who done the missions to talk about them. Our levels of preparation are different and very likely those who have done the missions would mindset us by telling us how they went about doing the mission. I rather they mention the planning considerations...

oh well, as usual cadets are always tired and sleepy... even though we have 7 hrs of sleep for both days. people still dozed off during lectures and i think we kinda pissed the senior instructors. haiz. anyway not many people can fight the after effects of a heavy meal :)

Fri was fun, knowing that we had a 5km fun run at Seletar Camp for formation cross country... kinda sad didnt get selected to rep in a team... We came in third. One of our instructors got tortured by us as it was his birthday and singing birthday song at about 5am was something new. Then we had a course gathering at Marina South. Had some sort of amazing race, my station was pretty cool... seeing people get frustrated setting up dominoes... had a game of bowling... then had steamboat ...

after that went home and got changed for clubbing. lol. 2 mths no clubbing, had to go this week before we fly off to thailand next week. Boy it's really chinablack yesterday. crowd was not there, music was so-so. shall boycott chinablack soon... my friends thinking of zouk today... but harmful leh... both to the wallet and body...

ok. shall take a nap and then type notes... again? ya, no life man. perhaps got time can read my principle-centred leadership. ok, say anymore u guys might think i am crazy...

oh ya something shocking happened to me... Disclaimer: you may get disgusted. It happened after the cross country run.

me: anyone wants a drink? (holding 2 packets of soya bean milk)

KX (my friend): har? got any other milk? any other milk also can.

me: then you want hazelnut milk? (Hazel is a female secretary from manpower branch sitting under a tent)

my OC: wah, siao eh, hazel ni dou yao? Eh, she's attached liao la (taking his car key from one of the cadets safekeeping for him)

me: (still in shock)

my OC: (walking away) but she's not married, you still got chance

me: (looked at the rest around me, still in shock)

After that episode, hazel under the tent looked at our direction. How i wish i could bury my head into the ground like a borehole drive.

OMG! now OC probably think i'm a dirty freak. lol.

..:: 351. The One With Weekday Bookout ::..

orchard road was empty...

went to watch 'Deuce Bigalow'. rather lame but funny show. worth 7 bucks but nothing more.

then to borders and bought 'principle-centred leadership' which is a pretty cool book :)

had a super fulfilling dinner at marina square-changing appetite with shannen, satu kosong and angeline :) missed those plain talking crap sessions. learnt coffee appreciation and lots about customer service :P

concussed till 11am and continued doing up my notes... kinda weird having to do notes even in army... well no pain no gain, i do want a sword after all :)

recently bought



a much better album than the last. very laid back songs... if want to buy go PS music junction... 9.90 only and original!!!

Hee.. here's how my RSM rank looks like



weekend bookout what should i do? sleep more perhaps... and learn my dance for comms ball :)

..:: 350. The One With Ex UNICORN ::..

Kaoz... so long never update... Have to go way back...

Before Ex UNICORN started, i had to retake SOC... the other time i got 8:10 but water bottle leaked. damn du-lan. but luckily this time, i got 7:51, my PB considering obstacles in SOCE much tougher due to the adjustments.

Ex UNICORN was more exciting than MUSANG... firstly, we had an enemy platoon... Duno whether am i unlucky or it was on purpose that they put me in platoon 1, its kinda farked up... store inspection, my platoon got to load and unload all the stores inside the tonners for 4 times cos some stuff were not arranged up to standard.

slept at 1+ and had to wake up ard 5 cos i was advance party. sian. the deployment phase almost killed most of us. For the first time, i felt so breathless and the sun didnt help at all, it made the weather even worse. on the verge of evaporation...

halfway throught the deployment phase, i was called out to be the runner to the next PC. According to the trend, those who are 'runners' would be PC for the next mission. With that, i was feeling weird for the rest of the day, anticipating what mission i had to undertake. Being a runner to a PC whose mission was to clear obstacles enemy has set up was a siong task. had to run around following the pc when most of my platoon mates could at least rest and take a nap while waiting for their turn to clear obstacles. Got screwed a few times cos i was not briefed properly the job of a signaller (aka runner). The signal set i carried had a long antenna that kept hitting people around me.

the mission was kinda disastrous... PC not very sure of navigating and section comd dunno how to clear the obstacles properly. The first obstacle we got stuck like 6 hrs, damn ridiculous. The instructors did their very best, i think, to 'kao-bei' and scream at us throughout the mission. It was a mentally shack mission as we started clearing obstacles from midnight till the next day 4pm! No sleep! Worse,PC and i didnt bring along our ration so we had to share with others. Then after everything, we had artillery bombardment so had to run for 1 km+ with casualties whom we had to carry and run along with all our equipment. almost died.

When the 2IC read oout the appointment for the next mission, i was surprising not the PC for the next mission but a section comd. I was relieved yet pondering why i was not a PC. My mission was to set up minefield which turned out to be disastrous too...

The other two sect comd were PCs of platoon 1 for minefield camp a few weeks ago and that infamous platoon 1 got to re-do their minefield for 5 times. Hence i was the inexperienced one. Damn frustrated with one of my course mate... after having done so many minefield, there was this traffic line which was supposed to be marked out by him. Instead, i ended up marking and got screamed at by him (???) for marking the lane so slowly that he could not set up his sector.

I almost died of shock from my sector. We dug fast enough with help from others but aiming of mines was shocking. firstly, i gave them sandbags of mines for their particular row, instead they used them to reinforce other rows. Secondly, they didnt tell me which holes they didnt lay the mines due to waterlogged areas. Hence, i had difficulty in accounting for the number of mines and the location of every mine which were critical information.

safety line was not removed by one of my pioneer which happened to be from platoon 1 (*faints), i think they too shack. In the end, we went to clear the white tape and as a section commander i got screwed damn badly for it.

Instructor: did you ask your pioneer to go into the minefield to clear the white tape even after warrant choy asked you not to?

Me: (feeling doom's day coming) yes sir

Instructor: £%$"% Do you know you have risked the life of your pioneer just to cover your ass? Who is going to be responsible for it? How are you going to answer to his parents? loved ones?

Me: (still feeling stunned)

Instructor: Recite the officer creed

Me: ...

Instructor: i lead my men by example. i answer for their training (??), morale and discipline..... i serve with pride, honour and integrity (??)... I will overcome adversity with courage, fortitude and determination (??)

Me: (thinking) he must have thought i asked my course mate to clear the white tape so i would not be scolded... but he was wrong... it was a common consensus among my section that we should clear the white tape. It was a mistake we realised and wanted to correct but in the end i was thought not brave enough to admit mistake??

Instructor: So u tell me should i pass you from this course?

Me: (eyes wide open)


after a long talk, i was finally let off.

After setting up of the minefield, we had 1 hr + to rest till it was about 5am, we were made to fall in. Then they read out the appointment for the next mission which was the live arming of mines.

PC for platoon 1 (+ enemy platoon): OCT Chong Chor Ming
PS for platoon 1: OCT John Chen



stunned. again.
I only got 45 mins to gather all the stores required and get the whole platoon convoy going. It was kinda messy cos most of the instructors were sleeping in vehicles and i had to get everyone to shout for the instructors.

forgot a few things like field latrine and signal set. but luckily the conducting was a nice guy... kinda happy when my chief instructor praised me for being forward looking... the convoy movement was smooth and i was glad everything went smoothly. The effects of mine were jaw-dropping.

Then we went back to recover the minefield we laid. It was a frightening experience. The instructors went around the minefield to check our positions of all the mines... Lucky he didnt come to my sector... i think he would faint if he saw my sector.

We reached back our wingline around 3am+.

tue. supposed to have half day off but dunno why eaten up. While moving stores with one of my platoon mates, he got a bad cut that ended up a mild fracture on his finger cos 5 x 1.8m iron picket dropped on his hand. was disappointed with one of my course mate who asked me not to report to the instructors cos they think they can handle at our level. It proved to be wrong. My friend had to be sent to TTSH for scan. Before the CO evening that day, all of us were called up to the discussion room and had a serious lecture.

fri. it was SOCE anniversary at sentosa. had a great time playing volleyball and eating... suddenly we were made to fall in and pumping postion at the sandy beaches.. damn malu... we were told by our OC to throw all the instructors into the sea. then later one instructor went bonkers and our task was to rip of underwear of all the male instructors. sick but we all had fun. it was a day of 'bo cheng hu' aka no government.

sat.sun.it was live firing for marksmanship... sadly, my shooting skill dropped. too long nvr shoot liao. shall try next year. 200 bucks... haiz. now really nothing to make my no 1 nice except IPPT gold badge.

i was the RSM (range sergeant major) for second day. wah the men really made me puke blood. damn slack and attitude problem. had to shout at them. lucky i love shouting at people, if not OC see liao confirm think pioneers can climb over my head. was damn pissed with my wing SM. i am the cadet RSM so i got the initiative to task organise the whole range on how to clear the range... instead he told me off and said i didnt follow his insructions. damn fume sia.

anyway, just glad i got my monday and tuesday off. must catch up on sleep liao. i think my life has been shortened quite a bit for the sleepless nights and stress. Almost everyone experienced foot rot, aching body...

kinda excited who will be the CWC for Ex CRESCENDO... cos the person will bring the cadets and coporals 100+ together to thailand and then see the whole EOCC commissioned... damn memorable and shiok la... somemore the person would be fighting for sword of honour... i am hyped up man... :)

..:: 349. The One With Ex MUSANG ::..

*concussion charge*

This week was super super physically demanding... Mon had landmine warfare test which i didnt get to study cos i didnt bring my precis back and i spent the sunday night cleaning my personal stores... Kena singled out for dirty entrenching tool... haiz. but luckily my test i got 91%. damn happy, first test over 90% :)
then it was moving stores, lots of concertina wires and lots of pickets...

tue. We had a SOC test, oh well came in with my PB of 8:10 considering the obstacles here are tougher than anywhere else i have taken and 5 secs off my previous PB should be good enough. However, i was kinda disqualified for a leaking water bottle. haiz. suay lo. but nvm shall take again and hope can get sub-8 :)

it was also the start of camouflage and field fortification . Build quite a number of obstacles and had to samula some cos we didnt meet the timing... By the time we built the last, we already all 'slow-mo'. Can really faint under heat exhausation. We only had like 5 mins rest in between each obstacles. The whole lot was punished for our slow movement... now had to double up whenever we go... damn sian, had to run around the area, shift stores here and there. slept late somemore :(

wed. we got to camouflage vehicles. Had to re-do 2 times till we met the ten minutes requirement. The end product was damn good and we took a pic together with our instructor. :) That was not all, we had a mission to build obstacles to protect installations... Started around 1500 and ended around 1800. Had debrief and taught us crossing of contaminated area, abattis, etc.

When we got back camp, our 2IC announced the names of the appointment holders of Ex MUSANG. I was pioneer again. Both platoon was mixed...

Got to sleep ard 0000 as usual.

thur. for men, we basically packed and loaded stores and had inspection. for the PCs was a day of planning and approval of plan. my day will come :)

fri.Our first mission was tactical deployment... The weather was so hot i thought i was evaporated... Had to dig a shellscrape (Note: a rectangular ditch for me to prone in it). was rather a ok siting cos i got to overlook scout camp rather than just vegetation. On the other hand, i got to dig out lots of creepy crawlers, centipedes, millipedes... Dig halfway found a concrete slab so haf to re-adjust... then dig till the middle part found a long metal pipe embedded. *faints*

throughout the day, we just kept building obstacles for preotection, camouflage vehicles and preparation for block mission the next day. had rehearsal till 2am then sleep for a while.

sat came so slowly... 5am we were packing our stuff ready to go. we started our block mission around 6+. Had to run with our packs... some had jerry cans which hold 20 litres of either water or flammable stuff. we ran for a long distance. i mean very long. got to experience the power of explosion that i missed during the live firing... man, hot stuff. so loud and the wave that i felt.

sun. we started our retrograde ops around 1700 on sat. All of us were shagged... I remembered we all took naps between tonner rides to varius vehicles... At 1am i finished setting up wire obstacles, by 2+am i was laying mines, and 3+ agAIN, 4+ i was laying mines, closing obstacles... by 5+, the mission ended... then we had to go back to retrieve everything. damn sian :(

came back to camp in the morning and got to book out by 3+pm. We had to go back one the next day to wash our stores :) gd move i must say. can at least concuss like me from 8pm to 6am.

must do lots of reading up and preparation. EX UNICORN is our summary exercise and confirm i kena appointment dis time... nervous sia... wish me luck :)